PORT ANGELES — A hearing on a controversial marijuana growing and processing operation at the shuttered Fairview School was canceled Wednesday because of a procedural error.
Hearing Examiner Mark Nichols determined that a staff report for a conditional-use permit application for the proposed plant at 166 Lake Farm Road had not been made available to the public five days before the hearing as required, Clallam County Planning Manager Steve Gray said.
“He did not continue the hearing or set a new date,” Gray said.
“He basically canceled the hearing.”
Gray predicted that the hearing for the Lake Farm Road property would be held late this month or in early November.
“We should have a date fairly soon,” he said.
Kurt Jafay of Sequim applied for the conditional-use permit to use the 9.5-acre former elementary school east of Port Angeles as a growing and processing facility.
The Port Angeles School District closed the school because of declining enrollment in 2007.
Residents protest
Area residents have protested the siting of the marijuana business in their neighborhood.
Jafay has said he plans to invest in the area, providing jobs in an operation that would include 12 greenhouses on the playfields of the former school.
State voters legalized the growing, processing and sale of recreational pot to adults 21 and older through the 2012-approved Initiative 502.
Clallam County commissioners Tuesday approved more-restrictive zoning for recreational marijuana growing and processing operations in rural areas.
The eight applications pending with the hearing examiner are not subject to the interim zoning controls.
The planned conditional-use hearing on the Fairview property was squeezed between another hearing on a proposed marijuana production facility at 64 Hooker Road, Gray said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
